Fariba Ameri

I grew up in Tehran, captivated by my grandmother’s chilling stories of her escape from Moscow during Russia’s Bolshevik revolution. She ultimately immigrated to Iran to escape the ravages of WWII. My worldview has been influenced by brave women such as her and shaped by a mélange of Eastern and Western cultures which in turn impacts my artistic style today. I came to the United States in 1977 to study at University of Southern California (U.S.C.). With the outbreak of the Iranian revolution, I made California my permanent home.

My work emerges out of a desire to explore the interconnectedness of the human condition, as I long for a more united world. My collage-based style manifests my imagination as I discover new orders in the chaos of life. This process is similar to weaving thousands of silk and wool threads into a Persian carpet; all pieces are tightly weaved together, essential to the overall pattern. Yet unlike the preset patterns of a Persian carpet; my artistic expressions emerge spontaneously as I weave together various collage pieces into a final story. My subjects are both symbolically autobiographical as well as an investigation of the human soul through a female lens. By transforming materials such as paper, jewels, wire, fragments from old paintings and personal items into objects of beauty and power, I search for a balance between the spontaneous and the preconceived, the decorative and the profound, the darkness and the light. I find the struggle to balance the contrasting powers in life as a journey to self-discovery as well as an arduous path to freedom.